


A Late Night Visit

by TheVioletSunflower



Category: The Thrilling Adventure Hour
Genre: Gen, M/M, backstories, hurt comfort, the relationship could be platonic or romantic, two hurt heroes bond over a bottle of wine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-12 23:25:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5685607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheVioletSunflower/pseuds/TheVioletSunflower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Phillip Fathom is wary to call Captain Laserbeam his friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Late Night Visit

Phillip Fathom, the deep sea detective, did not look impressed to see the grinning man in tight spandex knocking on the door of his hideout. "Captain Laserbeam," he grunted without moving aside to let the man in, "what evil is afoot? Is Mr. Octopus causing mayhem at Apex City's top medical school?"

"No," said the light-amplified adventurer, looking a touch taken aback.

"Is the Clownfish fooling around with the law?"

"No, he's safely behind bars."

"Is it the Fishwife?" His voice darkened considerably when he said the villainess's name.

"No, no, nothing like that."

"THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE!?"

"I brought wine!" Captain Laserbeam said, apparently unfazed by his friend's outburst.

Phillip Fathom stared him down long enough to make the other hero shift his weight from foot to foot nervously. Finally he took the bottle of wine from Laserbeam's hands and went back into the hideout leaving the door open. Captain Laserbeam took this as an invitation and followed him in.

"Why are you here?" Fathom repeated as he collected two tumblers from the kitchen and handed one to the man now sitting on his couch. He sat across from him and stared unblinkingly as he poured the wine.

"I just wanted a glass of wine with my buddy!" he said, taking the huge glass Phillip had poured for him.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!"

Captain Laserbeam jumped. "Wh-what?"

"Your hair is not parted," Fathom pointed out. "Your shoes are on the wrong feet and you do not seem concerned about the wine you just spilt on your pants."

The high-flying scion of science look down and swore at the sight of the small red stain on his bright orange pants.

"You are distracted. You are here because you need my help."

Captain Laserbeam didn't hear him. He was too busy trying to use his lasers to get the wine out of his clothes. He didn't look up until he felt Fathom's blue-tinted hand on his knee. He gave up with the lasers and took a huge gulp of the remaining wine instead. He leaned back on the couch. "Dream Girl is back with The Platonic Ideal," he said bitterly.

Fathom frowned. "Why did you come to me?"

Laserbeam sighed. "Because I still miss her and I needed to be with a friend."

"I am not your friend," the semi-amphibious knight told him.

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"I DON'T HAVE FRIENDS!"

Captain Laserbeam, who had been examining the bottom of his now-empty glass, looked up in surprise. "You don't have any friends?"

"Not since my parents died at sea."

Laserbeam refilled his cup and passed the bottle to Fathom. "Why not?"

Fathom considered the bottle for a second before taking a swig directly out of it, skipping over the glass entirely. He slammed the bottle down on his coffee table and turned his jet-black stare back to the man across from him. "I was with my parents when they died," he told him. "The sea killed them both, but decided to spare me. Instead, it gave me gills and a bioluminescent filament extending from my head."

Captain Laserbeam nodded. "And then you moved to Aquapolis and became its marquee hero, I know."

"Not immediately," he admitted.

Laserbeam raised an eyebrow with interest.

"Before that, I teamed up for a time with The Fishwife."

Laserbeam looked positively gleeful. "The Fishwife? You? But… how? What happened?"

"SHE LEFT ME FOR SHAPE APE AND TURNED TO A LIFE OF CRIME!" Fathom bellowed. "I CARED ABOUT HER AND SHE LEFT! JUST LIKE MY PARENTS DID!"

The two of them were quiet for a long time. Fathom took another long swig of wine directly from the bottle.

Laserbeam was the first to break the silence. "I'm not going to leave you, Phillip."

"Yes you are."

"I'm not. I promise I'm not."

The detective didn't say anything.

"I'll prove it. I'll tell you something I've only ever told Dream Girl. I have a secret identity. My real name is J-"

"Joshua Valor," Fathom interrupted. "Millionaire. Bought his powers from the world's best scientists to help the city he loved."

"You know my secret identity!" Captain Laserbeam's voice was significantly higher than it usually was.

"I know everything about everybody," Phillip told him. "If another hero goes the way of The Fishwife, I plan to be prepared."

Fathom raised the bottle to his lips again, but was stopped by a laser-warm hand over his own cold-blooded one. "Phillip," the millionaire superhero said gently. "If you know everything about me, tell me this. How many times have villains put me in their death traps or tried to seduce me to their evil ways?"

"437," the detective grunted.

"And how many times have I resisted their traps, proving I won't leave in the way your parents did?" he pressed.

"Only 429!" Phillip told him. "You have failed to resist on eight separate occasions."

"And each time you were the one to rescue me," he pointed out. "I owe you my life eight times over, so I will never leave you like The Fishwife did."

Phillip considered this for a long time, looking deep into Laserbeam's blue eyes with his own black ones. "There are worse people I could team up with," he finally said.

Captain Laserbeam grinned. "Then we're friends?"

"Yeah. We're friends."


End file.
